bookblogging

[cerusee]

Novels/prose books:
Bierce, Ambrose: Fantastic Fables
(hmm. Lots to be said. Aesop's Fables, as written by a sophisticated late 19th century cynic; cynicism palls really, really fast. It's interesting, but at least from my perspective, not entertaining).


Romance:
Heyer, Georgette: The Talisman Ring
(I liked it! As I generally do with Heyer. She's very good, you know).

Sutherland, Peg: Queen of the Dixie Drive-In
(When telophase shipped this to me lo those many months ago, I meant to do an in-depth snarky review of it in lieu of payment. But I never got around to it, and then school happened. I think it was mostly okay? The prose didn't send me screaming and it wasn't hugely misogynistic or anything).


YA:
Jones, Diana Wynne:
The Game (way too short, but a good read. Loved the bit with the pork chop, and also how well the reveal worked with the prior characterizations; Jones always does that kind of thing well. There's a little part of me that keeps waiting for her to do some kind of truly pan-mythic story, but maybe that's not fair, especially at this point; she's a basically Western Civ gal, and I know that. And she does pretty good stuff with Greco-Roman/Western European/British Isles mythology; it's not as if she's stagnated with it).
The Spellcoats (reread),
Conrad's Fate (reread),
House of Many Ways (reread),
--totally meant to go on in more detail about all these rereads, but, as I said, school happened.


Light novels:
Ono Fuyumi:
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
(I wanted to love this, and Yoko, as much as bookelfe did, but I didn't. I felt better about that after I went back and reread her post on it, and her comments about why she identified so strongly with Yoko--identifying with a character is always YMMV, and I'm not that person. But I totally get the bit about it subverting fantasy tropes. It's fascinating for that, and the more I go back and look at it, the more I like the structure and plot. The prose of the translation is unimpressive, but the story is good).

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind
(awww baby kirin. And, while reading this book, I found myself suddenly hugely in love with the entire universe--reading the second book made me love the first more, and made me desperately want more of the entire world, and all the characters. I begin to get used to Ono's mind, and I like it).


Graphic novels:
Foglio, Phil and Kaja: Girl Genius book four: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams (holds up well on a reread).

Warren, Adam: Empowered vol. 5 (awwwwww fuckity.
But I'm relieved. I expected to cry a hell of a lot more than I did. I am simply grateful that I didn't cry more than I did. I think this series will eventually rip my beating heart from my chest and set it on fire, because that's what Adam Warren does to your heart. And you then say, "thank you sir, may I have another? Because I adore your clever writing, even though you obviously want to hurt me.")


Manga:

Akino Matsuri:
Genju no Seiza vols. 6-7 (was that another PSOH ref with the kirin? Say it's so, Akino!).
Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo vol. 5

Mori Kaoru: Emma vols. 8-9 (oh shit the Meredith bedroom scene was so hot! There is no sex, although there is sexiness, but the intimacy--emotional and physical--is so pure and tangible I kept having to put the book down and go oof).

Ninomiya Tomoko: Nodame Cantabile vols. 15-16.

Otsuka Eiji, writer, Yamazaki Housui, artist: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 9

Takaya Natsuki: Fruits Basket vol. 22

Umino Chica: Honey & Clover vol. 4.

Urasawa Naoki: Pluto vol. 5 (and here I'd just boasted to my LCS guy that I knew everything that was gonna happen because I didn't see Urasawa deviating from the basic structure of the plot as outlined in Tezuka's The Greatest Robot on Earth. So far, he hasn't, but this is fucking Urasawa, man. He's a master of suspense. He will surprise you, and he will make you hang. And he'll do it well. It's why he's awesome and we love him.

Urasawa Naoki: 20th Century Boys vol. 4

Watanabe Taeko;
Kaze Hikaru vol. 11

Comments

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

We've always known that fan translations, like pot, are a gateway drug to a life of hardcore crime danced upon the trampled bodies of starving crack babies.

And Yoko's story is more dramatically interesting, also, what with all the mortal peril and running around the countryside meeting mostly very terrible people, and having hideous, soul-destroying adventures. Taiki's story is positively domestic in contrast. I think it works well as sort of a follow-up expansion on how this divine ordinance mechanism is supposed to work.*

*I mean, it sounds so neat and cold and didactic, but almost from the beginning, we know about wassername--Joyei? The queen of Kei before Yoko? The one who was in love with Keiki, I mean--the one who was properly chosen by the kirin, and who should have had what it took to be a good monarch, but who failed quite horribly, instead. For whatever reason--because she lacked confidence, because she wasn't encouraged or supported by people who understood her and knew how to help her, because she didn't go through the right character-building experience/trauma like Yoko, because just having the potential to succeed doesn't guaranteed success--she didn't step up to the responsibilities of monarchy, and when Keiki, trying to adapt to her needs, offered her more emotional intimacy and support, she obsessively fixated on him and turned into an murderous monster. And there's also Kou, who we know had ruled for several decades before his prejudices ran his kingship and his country and his kirin into death and ruin. So clearly, what the divinely-inspired kirin are drawn to are merely the qualities that indicate the potential for kingly greatness, not a predetermination of same. Which is ever so much more interesting than the alternative.

[skygiants]

A friend offered me the body of a starving crack baby to use as a DDR mat the other day and I was not sure how to politely say "thanks, but I think I'm okay." :( These things are difficult!

I totally agree with you - I think one of the things that make the world so fascinating is that everyone knows that the whole divine-right thing is no guarantee that the king is going to grow into the person that they need to me. It's this really interesting juxtaposition of predestination and free will - and part of what makes Taiki's story interesting in the second book, too, is that you know from the first one that even though it seems like everything has worked mostly all right, and Taiki and his king are doing great, something is going to go terribly wrong by the time Yoko gets there.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Simple, you just say, "Thank you for your generous offer, but I have one in the trunk of my car already." See, if you read enough etiquette columnists, you begin to get the hang of this kind of thing.

Also, it suddenly strikes me that if you know about the kirin and the swear-to-never-desert-my-post-before-your-throne bit in advance, you lose out on the awesome WTF aspect of the "Uh, Yoko, I think you're the queen of Kei" scene, and the whole novel might read differently. I enjoyed being as surprised and flabbergasted as Yoko about that.